Blair returned a moment later with directions to the place called Ballet that we’d passed earlier, and the tip that it was a popular late-night spot. In Europe, that meant after 4 a.m. Surely the booze would put me to sleep by then.
We started down the street, my hand finding hers again. Blair didn’t flinch or pull away, her fingers tightening around mine, and I stopped her for another kiss.
“What are you doing?” She panted into my neck when we’d had enough. For now.
“Hey, if you were my girlfriend I’d be kissing you a lot more. You’ve got me wearing this stupid hat and glasses. The least you can do is play your part of the disguise.”
“Noted.”
“More booze?”
“If I were your girlfriend, I would definitely need more booze,” she teased. “Follow me.”
“As long as it means I get to look at your ass, I’m all for that plan.”
“You have a real thing for asses, huh?”
“I have a real thing for yours.” I punctuated the statement with a light pat, then fell into step beside her, the excited smile on her face necessitating yet another twelve-o’clock tuck. I hadn’t done so many of those since Betsy Reynolds and her cantaloupe breasts quit the junior tour.
*
The whole world was blurred around the edges by the time we stumbled back over the uneven streets toward Unity. My eyelids wouldn’t raise higher than halfway, and I seemed to be leaning on Blair’s shoulder a little harder than I meant to, which all boded well for my ability to sleep in a bed of communal filth.
The guy at the front desk barely raised an eyebrow, even when I stumbled into a chair and knocked it across the room. Blair giggled, a strange sound, then dragged me toward the bathrooms.
We met back in the hallway a few minutes later, and even though she’d pulled her long hair up and scrubbed her face clean, she was still prettier than most of the girls in the world.
And I would know.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” My words sounded far away and probably a little slurred, but the loopy smile on her face said she wasn’t far behind me.
“Like you want to finish something we started last night.”
“Maybe I do.”
“Maybe you should have bought condoms at that drug store earlier today, then.”
My lie from last night settled in my gut, making me uncomfortable in spite of the buzzing cloud hovering over my brain. Instead of answering, I held out a hand and led her into the hell pit—or dorm room—and we found an upper bunk that was unoccupied.
The room was half full, with a group of three Arab-looking teenaged guys trying to sleep on one end, a group of two guys and four girls—probably closer to our age—passing a bottle of vodka and talking too loudly in the middle. The talking occasionally turned to shrieks, followed by shushing that was louder than anything else. Somehow, two blond girls snored on the other side of them, their ages a mystery.
I boosted Blair up behind the teal and navy curtains, more as an excuse to squeeze her ass than anything, then managed to get in behind her without breaking my neck. The mental image of how Leo’s eyes would bug out if he could see me now—drunk off my ass, eating crap food, not working out, and sleeping in a hostel—made me chuckle under my breath.
Laughter crashed into lust as Blair pulled her sweater off, leaving nothing but a thin tank top to cover what looked like a lacy black bra that barely held her perfect tits hostage.
“What are you doing?” I was horrified and fascinated, my body a giant conflict between desire and honor. I had a policy about sleeping with girls as drunk as she had to be just then, even knowing how close we had come last night.
“It’s hot in here, don’t you think?”
It was fucking boiling, but no way was I taking my clothes off. “It’s fine.”
“You’re sweating.” She wobbled in the process of getting out of her jeans, banging her head into the wall behind the bed. “Ouch.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Blair made a face, pursing her lips as she swept her eyes over my clothes again. “If you have an aversion to sleeping in the same bed with me all of the sudden, you can move down below. I don’t care.”
She did care. I sensed it, and couldn’t figure out why she was so intent on trying to make me believe that she didn’t. Despite the danger of touching her, I ran a hand down her cheek and settled it on her collarbone. Her pulse thudded under my thumb, stirring me to the kind of attention that made me desperate to get out of my own pants.
“I love sharing a bed with you. If we weren’t drunk and in a room with fifteen other people, I’d love to share a lot more with you. Which is why watching you take off layers of clothes is making me extremely uncomfortable.” I glanced down at my crotch and let her follow my gaze, then watched her cheeks redden.